Pixelmator: The Unexpected

The more I play, the more I believe that I have been underestimating the power of the PixelMator. I am starting to suspect that hidden behind the humble pricetag is the image editing equivalent of  "a predator masquerading as a house pet".

Many of my Photoshop worklow techniques are based on lessons learned from Photoshop gurus like Matt Kloskowski and Scott Kelby. I wondered while I waited for Photoshop to load if I could color correct an image in Pixelmator and achieve similar results. When I launched Pixelmator later that same day to look around for a "High Pass" filter or its equivalent, I didn’t expect a menu called "Generator".

Curiousity got the best of me and off on a tangent I went. This is a brief introduction to some of these filters.

The Generator Menu offers: Checkerboard, Lenticular Halo, Star Shine, Stripes, Sunbeams, Constant Color and Random Generator. The Constant Color Filter generates a solid field of color based on your foreground color so I won’t bother with it. Use the paint bucket. Now, why is it called generator? I don’t know, because it generated interest?

Checkerboard:

When chosen, this command creates a checkerboard based on the foreground and background colors in your tool menu.
The Options Palette give you the option of adjusting the width and sharpness.

 

Lenticular Halo:

It cannot really be compared to Photoshop’s Lens Flare Filter but it still offers an effect easy adjustable by all the available options in its palette. definitely a filter to become familiar with for future designs…
 

Star Shine & Sunbeams:

Easily add reflections and twinkles with these two filters.
 

Stripes:

The options are similar to checkerboard.

 

 

Random:

The Random Generator resulted in what I can only compare to a marriage between the Noise and Pointillize filters in Photoshop.

 

Next: A look At the Gradient Palette

_{*** The sample image is from costi at Sxc.hu and available for download free at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1136071}